A recent study has shown that many farms could increase their yields while greatly reducing the quantity of chemical fertilizers that they have to buy. Given the dramatic increase in the price of fertilizers, this may well become something that many farmers are forced into.
The study suggests by adopting environmentally sustainable methods much of the fertilizers would become unnecessary.
The techniques range from adding manure and compost to the soil (something that many farms have a ready supply of), growing nitrogen fixing plants between crops. Given that many of these also remove large quantities of carbon from the air, their adaption would be a win win. Another way to dramatically increase yields is to abandon the monoculture, and return to growing a wide range of crops, allowing the soil to recover from each type of use while being used for something else.
It is certainly true, that we need to move back towards natural fertilizer methods, as these always have a lower carbon footprint – never mind often being more efficient.
